Firkins Reed

Tuesday, January 13, 1981, Harvard women's hockey vs. Dartmouth. The Crimson trails, 1-0, in a grueling contest. Late in the second period, co-captain Jennifer "Firkins" Reed streaks up the right side and slaps one from 40 ft. to catch Sue Yunick's stick in front of the net. Picture-perfect goal. The Crimson is back in the game and later wins it, 2-1, on Vicki Palmer's overtime goal.

Firkins Reed stars in the center of the Monster Line, which also features Yunick and Palmer. How many times has the Monster Line kept up consistent offensive pressure in tight contests? How many times has the Monster Line contributed crucial goals late in the game? Firkins Reed knows and many say she's the scariest member of the trio.

That's what Firkins Reed is all about--pushing, breaking, forechecking, making the shots that count. If not a real monster, she is one of the most imposing skaters on the ice for Harvard.

Reed, a junior, leads the team off the ice too. She and senior Lauren Norton, her co-captain, provide a strong base of personal support the rest of the team can count on. About the only thing the two disagree on is who contributes more to the team.

"Firk is really perceptive about people. She makes a really big effort to bring people together," Norton says, though she admits that "in some ways, I might have a little more insight into technical hockey."

Reed claims that Norton brings harmony to the team: "I think Lauren is really perceptive to things that are disturbing people."

A true fighter, Reed leads her troops with an updated version of Vince Lombardi's famous sports axiem -- "No loss is a good game."

After a celebrated freshman year at the Stowe School in Vermont under captain Alison Bell '79, Reed moved to the Taft School in Watertown, Ct., and then on to Harvard.

To Reed, Ivy League competition does not seem as fierce as her old rivalries with Choate and Hotchkiss.

"I remember once we were playing Choate, our left wing was trying to score a goal and their defenseman just grabbed her and pulled her down. I watched the whole thing for a while and then I went in and took care of that defensemen. I have a lot of memories--most of them are fights," she says.

Reed adds that she and Norton have struggled to instill a fighting spirit in the rest of the team. "We're convincing ourselves that it's all right to lose by a goal. That isn't all right."

The 1980-1981 season, Norton's last, is almost over, and Reed would rather not admit that. "I don't know who I'm going to look to next year," she says, adding that, "some people look to me; I look to Lauren."

But the fight is not yet over, and the Norton-Reed duo will lead Harvard this weekend, in the Ivy League Tournament at the Bright Hockey Center.